Overstuffed and not entirely successful, this follow-up is nonetheless fun and entertaining.
This return visit to Happy County following series opener Hello, World! (2020) includes informational sections along with brief narratives, search-and-find challenges, lots of labels, and many visual jokes.
Once again there are 18 chapters, mostly two pages each. The action takes place over two days and two nights with the Sun and the Moon depicted in both factual and fanciful fashion. Small stories feature a grandmother’s visit, a filmmaker’s frustration, a hot air balloon mishap (solved with ingenuity by the Bright Brothers), an entrepreneurial snake gardener, and a backyard campout. Sections between the stories provide basic facts, with varying success, about the water cycle, photosynthesis, the phases (or “faces”) of the moon, tides, planets, and solar power. In addition to feeling slightly arbitrary despite their ties to the moon and sun, these informational sections are generally too brief to be truly informative, most obviously in the explanation of low and high tides. Occasionally awkward phrasing further weakens the overall appeal. Despite these flaws, there is plenty to like about Long’s busy artwork and the (mostly) anthropomorphic animals that populate his cheery community. Luckily, the format lends itself to reading sections independently as well as sequentially. Fans of the first book will be amused by spotting Farmer Del, still chasing L’il Beaky, on some spreads while readers new and old will enjoy catching the clever puns and learning a wide variety of vocabulary words. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Overstuffed and not entirely successful, this follow-up is nonetheless fun and entertaining. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-19174-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts.
Ohtani, pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, teams up with Blank and Liem to tell the story of how his dog, Decoy, threw out a ceremonial first pitch.
It’s a big day! Decoy leaps “off the bed. Then back onto the bed. Then off the bed.” The enthusiastic pup heads outside to practice with his lucky baseball but is quickly distracted by squirrels (“we’ll play later!”), airplanes (“flyin’ high!”), and flowers (“smell ya soon!”). Dog and pitcher then head to the ballpark. In the locker room, Decoy high-paws Shohei’s teammates. It’s nearly time! But as Shohei prepares to warm up, Decoy realizes that he’s forgotten something important: his lucky ball. Without it, there will be “no championships, no parades, and no hot dogs!” Back home he goes, returning just in time. With Shohei at the plate, Decoy runs from the mound to his owner, rolling the ball into Shohei’s mitt for a “Striiiiike!” Related from a dog’s point of view, Ohtani and Blank’s energetic text lends the tale a sense of urgency and suspense. Liem’s illustrations capture the excitement of the first day of baseball season and the joys of locker room camaraderie, as well as Shohei and Decoy’s mutual affection—even when the ball is drenched in slobber, Shohei’s love for his pet shines through, and clearly, Decoy is focused when it matters.
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780063460775
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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